Baron Cohen Jumps the Shark as Political Prankster with 'The Dictator'

The box office receipts for “The Dictator” indicate the new comedy won’t be another “Borat”-sized hit for star Sacha Baron Cohen.

But The Washington Times’ Sonny Bunch argues the film is more than a box office disappointment. It’s a sign the comedian’s short reign as a premier political prankster may be over.

His shtick is wearing thin, and he’s starting to let his politics overpower his laughs.

Nowhere is that more apparent than at the climax of his latest film, “The Dictator….”

In it, he essentially turns to the camera and addresses the audience, asking sarcastically why people would prefer democracy over a dictatorship anyway:

…Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1 percent of the people have all the nation’s wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health care and education. Your media would appear free, but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family….

…The speech isn’t unfunny because it’s liberal. The speech is unfunny because it’s tacked on. It felt like Mr. Cohen and director Larry Charles got tired of trying to work political humor into the mix organically — as they did in “Borat” and “Bruno” — and said, “Well, why don’t we just tell people what we think?”